I was/am speechless + in shock (but am I?) at the CAUCASITY of this email I received from @jennlouis last week. White people: if you think you’ve done the work already, I promise you haven’t. It’s gonna be a long one, folks. Buckle up.

There are about 1000 reasons (which I will benevolently get into) why this is an atrocious and disgraceful email, but among the worst is why I’m receiving it in the first place, assuredly spurred on by the BLM movement rn?

The “mistake” mentioned is this tweet promoting a fried chicken special at her (now closed) restaurant to commemorate the anni of MLK’s asassination. Most food media (and non) were publicly aghast about the stereotyping, racism, gross display of consumerism and and

I retweeted @adamewood hours later (and at that point, I was no longer employed by The O), yet JL only felt the need to call me out, the one “recognizable” BIPOC in the bunch.

Her feeling shame aka WHITE FRAGILITY here is her responsibility. Let me say this again for the people in the back -- it is not the responsibility of BIPOC communities to suffer your abuses because you are uncomfortable or defensive or think you’ve already done your work.

(For transparency, I have also contacted the other (white) writers who were involved at the time and none of them received emails from Jenn)

That a BIPOC person needs to provide YTs with education, forgiveness and compassion while you continue to oppress them or maintain supremacist values is to ask that person to condone and suffer your mistreatment while they provide you with decency you’ve not afforded them.

It’s not hard to not uphold white supremacy. It just takes work. There’s no “forgetting” triggers or stereotypes. There’s recognizing what they are and why they are unacceptable, then owning your complicitness and doing the emotional work and labor to educate yourself.

This is also an attempt to tone police how I (but no one else) should have reacted to her truly awful and racist “commemoration” and is meant to shame me. And that her interest in educating, forgiving or being compassionate should only be extended when she is the “victim.”

She places the assumed “innocence” (a privilege) and intent of the subject (victim) above the impact of what hurtful comment she made. That essentially, white ignorance and fragility is more important than (and should be forgiven ahead of) the communities hurt by your racism.

Ah yes my bad I was ignorant of HER ignorance (and therefore innocence) and need to shelve that above any emotions or reactions I might have had about her mind-blowingly tone-deaf and offensive dinner special.

Don’t tokenize any Black friends you might have to justify yourself. BIPOC aren’t monoliths and their opinions don’t absolve your actions or discrimination when dozens of people call you out. Also, white ignorance (+the idealized “grace” it should afford) and “best intentions.”

Self-righteous platitudes about “trying to do better” also only stand up when you have actually tried to do better anddddddd wait they still don’t.

Literally step 1 of being anti-racist is to stop saying “I’m not racist”

There is also a huge gap between a “racist” and “upholding and/or participating in socially acceptable white supremacy and/or racist ideologies.” Saying you’re not racist makes it impossible for people to see how they are in fact, racist or upholding racist ideologies.

It also attempts to erase all previous discriminatory conduct as a way to be exempt from self-examination or self-work. Also, false allyship! You can DEFINITELY uphold covert or socially acceptable white supremacy and fail to acknowledge your participation in it.

Also, @jennlouis please share the ways you are working to be anti-racist.

Outside of being passive aggressive, she’s signaling no self-reflection was ever done because I am receiving this email two years later! Support, compassion and “best intentions” do NOT lead to equity, and clearly neither does alleged shame.

Something else I have thought about throughout all of this: Was she inspired by the dialogues around racism and white supremacy thanks to #BLM as an inspiration to tell me to F off?

More transparency: this is not the first email I have received. She sent an email in 2018 inviting me to a Hanukkah dinner:

(My dad’s family is Jewish and I have celebrated off and on fwiw lol)

Being Jewish does not align anyone with the systemic racism Black people experience in any way, and this statement is just a way to deflect from the accusations against her being discriminatory.

While anti-Semitism is still very real, power structures don’t perpetuate anti-semitism in any way that has an impact on the daily lives of white Jews. Anti-blackness, however, is visible at every level of every institution and actively contributes to the murders of Black people

Hello, intersectionality. She can, as a white Jew, experience white privilege and oppression for being Jewish. It does not affect the way she accesses anything in our society however, like healthcare, housing and job opportunities or simply just existing!

Just lol at the Maya Angelou quote

I am being asked, again for the againth time, to consider how she is the victim in all of this. Just, no.

Why did I go through the trouble and WORK of this? @jennlouis is a public figure. She was a 2012 F&W Best New Chef, was on Top Chef Masters, plus numerous other food sites and shows as an “authority,” has published multiple cookbooks + maintains a sizable social media following.

That level of visibility most assuredly does not preclude her from doing her own work and re-education instead of placing it upon me, a member of the BIPOC community from whom she’s also expecting compassion from and a congratulations? for continuing to be shitty?

Woof, it only took me...two weeks to save up the emotional energy to put this together

Also this Juneteenth tweet is something else https://twitter.com/jennlouis/status/1274177062173958146?s=20